The country should decide on and perhaps implement the
splitting of Eesti Gaas’s sales and transmission units by 2015,
nationalizing the grid and building a regional or local
liquefied natural gas terminal, Taavi Veskimagi, the Chief
Executive Officer of Elering, said in the foreword of a report
by Poeyry Oyj, a Finnish consulting company. A supply contract
with Russia’s OAO Gazprom is due for renewal then.

“The development of the natural-gas market and expansion
of gas consumption will probably occur only if the transmission
grid belongs to the Republic of Estonia,” Elering said. “The
state can only ensure effective energy markets through two
simultaneously functioning levers: working regulations and
ownership of the system operator for the main grid.”

Estonia’s ruling Reform Party published plans in October
last year for gas unbundling to reduce dependence on Gazprom,
Eesti Gaas’s biggest owner and the sole supplier of gas to
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Baltic nations, which have
uneasy political relations with Russia, are seeking EU support
for building an LNG terminal in the region, citing higher gas
prices than in western Europe and supply risks.

Draft Bill

The Economy Ministry has drafted a bill to separate
ownership of gas sales and transmission by 2015. Last year,
Lithuania announced a similar plan at Lietuvos Dujos AB,
bringing criticism from Gazprom and from Germany’s E.ON AG,
which also has a stake in Eesti Gaas.

The Baltic nations asked the European Commission this month
to help decide whether a regional liquefied natural gas terminal
is needed and where it might be built, after failing to agree on
a location.

A regional terminal for the Baltic nations and possibly
Finland would cost 375 million euros ($504 million), Estonian
Economy Minister Juhan Parts said in September, citing the
Poeyry report before it was published.